Rachel Innes is a middleaged spinster who decides to rent a house at 'The Pines' for the summer while her own home is being renovated. She is joined there by her maid Mrs. Stoffer, and her niece and nephew Lisa and Bill. The first night passes without incident, but that will turn out to be the only time any of the residents can sleep soundly during the midnight hours. Indeed, on the second night, the nervous Mrs. Stoffer swears she hears a ghost trying to enter the premises, and even the practical Rachel becomes a bit jumpy. On the next night, a gunshot rings out and a body is discovered: it's Arnold Armstrong, the disgraced son of 'The Pines''s owners. The Place is Vermont, and the time is 1927.